First Comes Love Then Comes Marriage
by MarieLewis
Summary: Lily and James discover some very important news.


**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER**

Lily sat curled on the over-stuffed, living room sofa with a dark green afghan resting atop her legs, the edges twisted from fingers that had previously fidgeted with it. The afternoon sun shone straight through the windows, casting golden light over Lily's pale face, seemingly setting bright red, long, swirling locks of hair ablaze.

The flat was silent, nothing- no one, present, except for Lily.

But the silence wasn't peace. It was fear.

Every few minutes, Lily would blink, mind whirling, as she tried to come terms with the discovery she'd made just that morning, but as soon as she attempted thinking about it, the fear would return, her hands would fidget, and she'd be lost in a world of colliding nightmares.

She didn't want to sleep. Couldn't. Even though she was bone-tired and suffering of a head cold.

Lily was waiting for James to come home. And if sitting on the sofa, alternating between twirling her wedding ring around her finger and pulling at loose strings in the afghan would some how get him here faster, then she would do just that.

Once, or maybe twice... Perhaps through all the years of their relationship, she had utterly detested the idea of being the wife that stayed home and twiddled her thumbs until her husband returned, but now, here she was, doing just that.

And really, she couldn't be bothered to do much else. Not right now anyway, not after that morning.

Lily checked her watch. Again. 6:00 P.M. Another five minutes and James would be... five minutes late.

Covering her face with her hands, Lily slumped against the cushions in defeat.

Then the Floo flared.

Lily leaped from her seat just as, not James, but Sirius, stepped out of the fireplace, dusting flecks of ash from his leather jacket.

She made no effort to hide her disappointment. And why should she, really? Couldn't a woman have her husband when she wanted him? The world was wrong.

"Oh," she said, dropping back onto the sofa, resuming her twiddling, "Where's James?"

Sirius scoffed as he slipped off his jacket, draping it over the arm of the sofa before he sat beside Lily. "Can't a bloke get some appreciation around here?" He tugged one of Lily's curls, it sprung up loosely as he released it.

Lily frowned and inched away from Sirius, practically gluing herself to the opposite side of the couch, her hips wedged in the corner between the arm and the back cushion.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes, Sirius," she told her wedding ring as she twisted it, squinting slightly to read the tiny inscription circling the silver band.

"_Love is patient."_

James had thought it rather clever.

Sirius stretched out on the length of the couch, his head on the arm-rest with his jacket, and his sock covered feet prodding Lily's thighs. Sighing, she pulled on the edge of his jeans to lift his ankles, allowing his heels to be propped up on the edge of her knees.

Sirius closed his eyes, "So, what's got you in a strop?"

His question sounded casual enough, not like he was prying, or, more importantly, like he suspected something.

Lily crossed her arms over her chest to stop the fiddling, "Nothing."

Sirius snorted.

"I just wanted to talk to James," she defended herself, feeling ridiculous for having to at all.

A toe poked her knee, "I suppose you'll have to vent to me instead, won't you?"

She scrunched her nose, "I'm waiting for James," she insisted.

"I can see that. You're restless. Come on, Lily, just tell me, I'll make it all better." Sirius grinned, "You'll see."

Turning her wrist, Lily checked the time on the small silver watch face: 6:07. "What time is he coming home?" she asked anxiously, suddenly worried by his absence for an entirely different set of reasons.

"Not till seven, he said. Can't be sure why though, he told me to come back here and check on you," replied Sirius.

Frowning, Lily glanced over at Sirius, giving him a proper once over. A sleeve on the dark green t-shirt he wore was singed, small scratches on the skin revealed by the tattered sleeve. His jeans were rather scruffy too, dirt and grass stains on the legs.

Calmly, she lifted his legs from hers, stood, set his legs back down, ignored his questioning look, and left the living room.

The medicine cabinet in the Knut sized kitchen was fully equipped with every potion, bandage, and salve Madame Pomfrey of Hogwarts Hospital Wing could ever dream of. Lily insisted every last bit of those supplies were there for James, as he hadn't yet figured out not to get hurt when he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter went out to do whatever it was they did when he came back with black eyes and scrapped elbows.

Lily suspected they spent more time frolicking during the full moon then was strictly necessary.

Besides, sometimes when Remus' self-inflicted wounds ran a little too deep, she had on-hand equipment to patch him back up. Remus preferred not to make a fuss, but, in Lily's opinion, more fuss was made about him not making a fuss then there would have been if he would simply allow them to make a fuss over him.

If that made any sense at all.

Potion vials clinked as she pushed them aside, carefully pulling out cotton swabs, a cloth, bruise-healing paste, and a disinfectant. She loaded the items into a plastic bowl and carried them out to the living room where Sirius still lay on the sofa.

He appeared to be sleeping, so Lily set the bowl down on the glass coffee table as quietly as possible. Emptying the bowl, she used her wand to fill it with water, tapped surface to make it warm, and dipped the cloth in.

Sirius didn't wake up once.

And James still wasn't home yet.

Lily was in bed now, Sirius still out like a light on the sofa.

It was 7:30. The first three fingers of Lily's right hand no longer had anything by way of nails.

Just as her eyes were involuntarily drooping closed, the unmistakable sound of the Floo flaring, someone stumbling out of the fireplace, crashing into the coffee table, and a body landing with a thump on the floor, reached Lily's ears.

She shot up, her hand immediately closing around her wand beneath her pillow.

"Lumos!" she whispered, crawling from her bed and creeping down the hall into the living room.

Sirius and James were both on the floor. The former, groaning and clutching his head, and the latter with his arms wrapped around his shins (which were no doubt bruised by the coffee table).

"James?" called Lily, shining the light in their eyes.

Sirius swore, "Damn it, Lily, my eyes." Then moaning pitifully, "Ooh, my head."

Feeling decidedly happier, Lily flounced over to where James and Sirius lay on either side of the squat table. "Suppose you should have made it to the guest bedroom, eh?" she said archly, hands stationed on her hips.

James lifted his head from the carpeted floor, eyes watering, he craned his neck to look at Sirius, "Yeah, what're you doing laid up on my couch anyway? You're supposed to be watching out for my ailing wife!"

Lily rolled her eyes, "I'm not '_ailing_', James," she stressed, "Just woke up with a bit of a headache."

"And sicking up, don't forget the sicking up," added James, eyes squeezed shut behind his round spectacles.

Sirius gripped a sofa cushion to haul himself off of the floor, collapsing on the sofa with a gasp, "Oh my bones. So sore..."

"You're sore?" countered James weakly, "I'm pretty sure my body will never feel the same again... Bloody Death Eaters."

Lily moved closer to James, bending over to peer closely at his face. "Bad mission?" she inquired, extending a hand to pry one of his off his bruised shins. She helped him stand, wrapping both arms around his waist once he did so.

"We had to run back up," grumbled Sirius, his voice muffled by the pillow covering his face. "I hate running back up."

"That's because you like to come roaring in like some sort of deranged lion," replied Lily primly. She stretched up on her toes to kiss James' cheek, "Come on, I'll patch you up in the kitchen." She tugged an unresisting James from the living room, whispering, "Let Sirius go back to sleep before he decides he's hungry."

James slumped in a chair at the table as she dabbed antiseptic on the back of his hand. Leaning closer, she lifted his hand to her face, examining the scrapes and pin-prick marks. Her thumb passed softly over an abused patch of skin, "What is this?"

He pulled his hand from her grasp, taking in the abrasions for himself, "We were hiding in the bushes," he said, tilting his hand in the light, "There must have been thorns."

Lily reached for his hand again, this time smearing thick, peppermint smelling, green ointment on his skin. "How bad was it, really?" she asked tentatively, "Nobody...?" She hitched a shoulder.

James grunted as he shifted in his chair, obviously sore and weary after the day, "No deaths... Well, not anyone on our side, that's for sure. It was a pretty close call with Frank though."

Lily's lips turned down, "Poor Alice," she murmured.

He nodded. "Might've been Malfoy who tried to curse him," he commented, after a bit of silence had passed between them. "Damn bastard. We almost had him too. He wasn't expecting me, Sirius and Benjy to come flying out of the trees on one side, not to mention Caradoc, Dorcas, and Hestia on the other." James scrubbed his clean hand over his face.

"You should sleep." She reached out to brush his hair from his eyes. One side of James' mouth tilted up in a sort of half-smile, "So should you," he countered.

Lily stood, close enough to James that his knees pressed against her thighs; she cupped his face in her hands. "You have a bruise." Her left thumb brushed over the mottled purple patch that flowered James lower cheek and jaw.

James closed his eyes, exhaling heavily, "I was trying to help Caradoc drag Frank away from the crossfire, Alice was in some sort of shock... she flailed when I pried her off of him. Caught me right in the jaw."

"I should have been there," Lily murmured, "I could have helped."

James cracked an eye open, "Not in the state you were in when Dumbledore called."

Instead of making a case about not being weak and James being overprotective, Lily nodded.

James pulled her closer, between his knees, wrapping his arms around her, "You must be tired," he mumbled into the soft cotton of her pyjama shirt. Lily put a hand on the top of his head, tilting it back, "What does that have to do with anything?"

"You never agree with me about these sorts of things."

True. But she wasn't about to say _that_.

"Because usually, I have no reason to," she replied succinctly, her fingers scratching idly at his scalp.

James sighed, turning his head to the side, his ear; pressed against her stomach. His thumbs traced patterns on her back, "What's your reason, then?"

Lily could tell he wasn't paying very much attention, his shoulders drooped, his arms weighing heavily around her waist, bright, hazel eyes shut against the dim kitchen lights.

She cupped the side of his face with her right hand, her left still on his head, and fingers in his hair. Bending over, her lips brushing the edges of his hair, Lily whispered, "James," she hesitated, the words she'd been waiting to say all day caught in her throat.

"I-" she faltered, "I'm pregnant."

Lily breathed a sigh of relief, finally,_finally_! And waited.

And waited. And waited. And waited.

A snore emitted from James' slightly open mouth.

Lily covered her face with both hands, shaking her head.

0000

Lily awoke to the smell of bacon, eggs, and pancakes, a smell she now associated with the toilet seat.

"Urgh," she groaned, sitting back on her haunches, she used a strip of toilet paper to wipe her mouth. Lily reached out with a shaky hand to flush the toilet and close the lid. The loo door squeaked as it opened, and Lily looked up, catching sight of James, fuzzy eyed and hair mused, peering through the doorway.

"You all right?" he asked huskily, leaning against the door jamb as he rubbed his eyes.

Lily nodded, using the edge of the bath tub to hoist herself from the tile floor. "Just a little nauseous."

James passed a hand over his face, "That's four mornings in a row now," he muttered, shuffling further into the lavatory to help Lily to the sink. He held her pony-tail back as she washed out her mouth.

"We should floo St. Mungo's," he mused aloud, releasing her hair as she wiped her face with a hand towel, "You probably caught that flu Dorcas had last week... the one she said she caught from her niece."

Yawning, Lily nodded again, edging around James to leave the cramped loo, and flop bonelessly onto the bed in the connecting room; James trailing after her.

"Lils?"

She rolled onto her back, cracking an eye open to look at her husband.

"I called St. Mungo's yesterday, James, while you were on that mission."

James leant against a post at the foot of the bed, encircling the slim wood with his arm, "Oh."

Her eye slid shut, "S'nothing to worry about," she murmured, then promptly fell asleep.

0000

Hours later, she sat at the kitchen table, teeth brushed, hair fixed, and face washed, dutifully eating her porridge under both James and Sirius' watchful eyes.

"I'm not going to break you know," she informed them, spooning another bite into her mouth. She frowned, shaking her head, Lily reached across the table for the glass sugar container. Ignoring the faces Sirius and James made.

"That's your fifth spoon of sugar, you know," commented Sirius, twirling his empty tea cup around on its saucer.

Lily snorted, stirring in the sugar, "I can count, Sirius."

"It is a bit much, Lils," James added, shooting a pointed look at her bowl.

Rolling her eyes, she scraped the last bit of porridge into her mouth, "It isn't like I eat like this all the time. And Sirius, weren't you going to check on Peter today?"

She gave him a 'why are you still here look' that she didn't really mean, but Sirius stood anyway.

"Yeah," he said raking a hand through his hair, causing it to stand up in short, black tufts, "I'll tell him you asked after him."

Lily waved her wand over the table, banishing the dishes to the sink, "Do."

Sirius shook his head at her, slapped James on the shoulder in farewell.

Kissing Lily on the cheek as he left the kitchen. Seconds later, the floo flared.

Immediately, James sat up straighter in his chair, pursing his lips as his eyes swept over her.

"What did the-"

"I'm pregnant."

The sentence seemed to drift through James, part of his mind still on what he was saying, and the other comprehending Lily's news.

"-healer say." His mouth opened and closed repeatedly. His body slumping backwards, back hitting the rungs of the wooden kitchen chair.

"P-p-pregnant?" he stammered, eyelids fluttering.

Lily placed her chin in her upturned palm, supporting herself with an elbow, "Yes."

It took James another moment or so to react, but when he did, Lily was hard-pressed not to burst out laughing.

"Pregnant!" He shouted, springing from his chair, hazel eyes sparkling with excitement. "We're having a baby?" James had rounded the table now, both of his hands clutching her shoulders.

She grinned, nodding.

Quite suddenly, she was yanked forward, James' arms wrapped around her tight as they spun in a circle, once, then twice before he released her.

"Lily," James whispered, his forehead pressed against hers, their fingers intertwined "I- I don't think I've ever been this happy in my entire life."

She kissed him. All thoughts of fear and danger far from her mind.

* * *

><p><em>AN: It's not my best, but it did help break the writer's block. _

_-Marie_


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